Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Eminent Surgeon & Philanthropic Layman

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1858-1931) - Eminent Surgeon

Source: The Provident Foundation, http://www.providentfoundation.org/history/gallery.html. 

 

 

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams was born January 18, 1858 in Hollidaysburg, County, Pennsylvania, to Daniel Williams, a free black barber, and Sarah Ann Price. While still young, his family moved to Annapolis, Maryland where he attended the Stanton School. Upon the death of his father, he lived with various relatives before settling in Jamesville, Wisconsin. In Jamesville, he was able to pursue his high school education and graduate from Hare’s Classical Academy in 1878. He studied as an apprentice under Dr. Henry W. Palmer, a prominent surgeon, for two years and in 1880 entered Chicago Medical College. After obtaining his doctorate in medicine in 1883, he opened his private practice in Chicago, Illinois. In 1891, he collaborated with Miss Emma Reynolds to found the Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School in 1891.

Dr. Williams earned lasting renown as s a surgeon on July 10, 1893 when he successfully performed pericardium surgery on a young man named James Cornish who suffered from stab wounds. While serving as surgeon-in-chief at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., he helped organize the National Medical Association (NMA), which was, at the time, the only national organization open to black physicians. He was selected to serve as its first vice president. In 1898, he married Alice Johnson, a school teacher from Washington D.C., and they returned to Chicago. Upon his return to Provident hospital, he performed another remarkable operation in 1902, successfully suturing a patient’s spleen. He continued to develop his private practice in Chicago and to expand his involvement in community affairs. He continued at Provident until 1912, when he was appointed staff surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago. He continued to practice medicine until he suffered a stroke in 1926. He then moved to the African American vacation community of Idlewild, Michigan, where he lived in retirement until his death on August 4, 1931.

Dr. Williams’ mother had converted to Catholicism after his father’s death in 1867. She sent two of his sisters to study at Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore, which was conducted by the Oblate Sisters of Providence. On November 26, 1930, he was baptized conditionally by Father Joseph Eckert, S.V.D., as there was question as to whether he had ever been baptized. In his will, Dr. Williams gave half of his estate to charity, with the largest bequest going to the N.A.A.C.P. Among the many other recipients was Saint Elizabeth’s Church in Chicago, to which he donated $2.500.00. Saint Elizabeth’s is considered to be the mother church of Black Catholics in Chicago. On August 8, 1931, he was buried from Saint Anselm’s Church in Chicago. In his eulogy, Father Gilmartin remarked “He was an honor to his country and his church; a credit to the people from whom he sprang; a blessing to all humanity.”

Sources: “Dr. Daniel Hale Williams,” The Provident Foundation, http://www.providentfoundation.org/history/williams.html; Chicago Defender, 15 August 1931, page 14; Afro-American (Baltimore), 22 August 1931, page 1.